Category: Frontpage Article

If you want to survive a long northern winter then music is your best bet. Without music we would all be shells — pods — rotting in a vegetable state without a proper soundtrack. But instead of totally starving your sun-deprived brain monster, toss that jerk a little snack with these soul-piercing ensembles hailing from the land formerly known as ‘part of the EU.’

ANNIE LENNOX! It’s enough said. She is a force stronger than failed relationships.

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Endnote

I do not claim to know anything about music but I have graciously devoted a good chunk of my life attempting to absorb as much knowledge as I can pertaining to every aspect of music, and there’s always something more to learn — and retain. As long as you have the passion for discovery there’s infinite stuff available to make you feel good.

Today Finland will celebrate its 100th anniversary having gained independence on December 6th, 1917. After moving here from the United Kingdom, here are 100 weird and wonderful things I love about this amazing country that I now call home.

1. The Finnish language is practical yet poetic. The word for world is maailma, which means land (maa) & air (ilma).

2. You can eat sandwiches for breakfast and no one will judge you for it.

3. Finland is the most successful country in Olympic history in terms of gold medals per capita.

4. The average Finn drinks 12 kg of coffee per year, more than any other country on earth

93. Finns will repair/fix/build everything themselves and not ask for any help.

94. Kids and adults love reading the weekly Donald Duck comics.

96. In summer you can sit out having drinks on a terrace and completely lose track of time because it never gets dark.

97. When someone is sat next to you on the bus and then they go and move to a vacant window seat, you spend the rest of the day wondering if you showered in the morning.

98. In most languages the word for Finland is very similar (Finnland, Finlande, Finska), but in Finnish it’s Suomi.

99. SISU!

100. And finally, I love that Finns are just way too humble to ever admit just how amazing (and kick-ass) this country is

Onnea Suomi!!!

Edward Ford is originally from the steel city of Sheffield who now lives in Helsinki, and is a fan of all things Finland. He’s a marketing strategist at Advance B2B, host of The Growth Hub Podcast, and former manager of the Finland Cricket Team.

When I was a teenager in my home country of Bangladesh the only thing I knew about Finland was that it’s the land of Nokia.

After completing my bachelor’s in electronics I worked as a journalist for 3 years, I then decided to come to Finland to pursue a master’s at the University of Oulu.

I observed a number of interesting characteristics about Finland in my first 12 months of living here and I present them below…

1. The virtue of being punctual

In Finland everything happens on time. Finns rigorously practice punctuality and expect others to do the same. Want to annoy a Finn? Then be late a full of excuses.

2. Girls are noticeably safe in public

The Bangladeshi society grapples with the perennial problem of street harassment of women. It’s typically not safe for women to go outside alone at night. On the contrary, Finland seems to be a safe haven for women. Women can dress as they please without the threat of verbal harassment.

3. The precious sun

Growing up in a tropical country has allowed me to grow accustomed to the predictability of the sun. The only seasonal exception is winter when the sun is slightly less intense. Finland forces you to become incredibly fond of the sun and its elusive tendencies.

4. Free Wi-Fi

The indispensability of mobile phones in everyday life is essential. The Internet has made communications easier and the convenience of using the internet is greatly amplified when you can connect to free Wi-Fi hotspots in public places throughout Finland.

5. Wherever you go, nature steals the show

Finland is Europe’s most forested country. Helsinki and its condensed population have easy access to the surrounding nature. The abundance of water is another key feature of Finland, which is why Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes. It was a pleasant shock moving from the concrete jungle of Bangladesh to the gorgeous greenery of Finland.

Photo: Michele Lawrence

6. The infrastructure is organized

I realized soon after moving that everything works systematically in Finland. Public transport is astonishingly punctual and businesses operate according to their announced schedules, which makes daily life hassle-free.

7. The food is flavorless

Finnish food is pretty bland and severely lacking in the spice department. I have tried to get used to Finnish food but I’m endlessly disappointed. The missing flavors seem to be replaced with a love for sugar, as Finns definitely have a sweet tooth.

8. English is widely accepted

Finns are among the top speakers of English as a second language in the world. In the big cities of southern Finland speaking English is not a problem, however, it’s impossible to integrate into the society without knowing Finnish. Sure you can speak English, but you cannot become part of Finnish society if you don’t learn Finnish.

9. Coffee & milk love

The Finns love for coffee is no secret. Finns drink tons of coffee according to the International Coffee Organization, so congratulations Finland, you’re the biggest coffee drinkers in the world! Finns also seem to have an admiration for milk. I was surprised to see that many adults drink milk with lunch…it’s not just for kids here!

10. Cars don’t honk

It’s a fact that having a car gives you greater mobility and when it comes to moving around in a sparsely populated country like Finland, a car is pretty essential. In comparison to Bangladesh where car’s honk nonstop, the Finnish roads are relatively quiet.

11. Expat Finns are easier to interact with

The expat Finns I have encountered, especially those who have lived in other countries where small talk is acceptable, are more friendly and open than others. Moreover, they don’t identify with the stereotypical definition of “reticent Finn” once they’ve returned to Finland. Concepts like “extreme personal space” or “public quietness” become obsolete to the expat Finn.

12. Silent Finland

Finns tend to enjoy the quiet and perhaps their surroundings influence this fact. The silence may feel mysteriously morbid at first, but once you adapt to it your focus can significantly improve…thus, Finland is a great place for writers!

Mahmudul Islam is a graduate student of wireless communications engineering at the University of Oulu.

Is the impending Finnish winter already clenching tightly on what’s left of your November soul? If so then check out these 5 winter activities that won’t add more chaos to your already insane inner monologue.

1. Indoor gardening

We all occasionally feel old inside, especially in winter. Now’s the time to embrace stereotypical hobbies that normal envelope elderly people. But instead of cleaning up after 85 cats, get yourself a million plants. Discovering new species of plants that will survive artificial sunlight is a beloved pastime in the north. It’s fun, reduces stress and makes you feel important. It’s also much cleaner and safer than having so many cats. Remind yourself that loving plants also means that you have no life.

2. Baking

Everyone loves the smell of freshly baked bread and if they don’t then there’s something intrinsically wrong with them. Once you learn how to bang out your own dough you won’t want the store-bought kind anymore, and what better way to spend your pent-up winter frustration than baking fresh pastries to keep all your plants company. Win.

3. Sauna

The classic and often intense sauna experience will put your mind on the mend. Trekking through giant heaps of snow is much more tolerable when you know the sauna awaits you with its warm, welcoming embrace. Give in to it, don’t fight it and you will finally understand the sauna’s winter allure — if only to defrost yourself. Don’t forget to sauna alone to avoid embarrassment because even after living in Finland for 10 years you still constantly screw up sauna etiquette. This probably means you are still wildly uncomfortable around random naked people.

4. Escape Room

(Skip if you have anxiety. Why not just nail your coffin shut right now?)

5. Ice fishing

Only for the brave at heart and for when your inner monologue needs a mind-numbing shock to shut the F up. Sitting on a camping stool over a frozen lake in the dead of winter is sure to grow hair just about everywhere, and feel totally natural. If you do catch something your fingers (and brain) will be so frozen that you won’t care what kind of fish it is anyway. This will undoubtedly make the foreigner Finn in you feel stupid, thus registering the whole bone-chilling experience as an awkward memory. But hey, it’s all about passing the time, right?

If all else fails just go to the bar.

Drink until May. Then remember it’s Vappu and you can’t stop now. If you’re still feeling guilty, just remind yourself that Donald Trump is still the POTUS and being in a constant state of slight inebriation is a perfectly acceptable form of coping.

I am sitting naked on a high wooden bench in a darkened bunker. The stranger sitting next to me, also naked, is beating my back with a handful of frozen birch branches. My face is on fire as an enormous blast of hot steam envelopes the two of us and others nearby.

A surreal sadist nightmare?

No — just a fairly typical scene during Christmas Eve in Finland.

Christmas Eve is the most popular day of the year at Kotiharjun Sauna, one of Helsinki’s few public saunas with a traditional wood-fired furnace.

I came to visit my son Leif who is studying abroad in Finland, and Christmas Eve is apparently the most popular day of the year at Kotiharjun Sauna

There’s something magical about this sauna.

I don’t understand a word of Finnish but each time the door opens to this Dickensian inferno, another naked woman appears. She shouts something indecipherable to the Nordic goddesses around me that sounds like, “Haluatko minun kääntyä löysä lohikäärmeen?” I think this must mean, “Do you want me to turn loose the dragon?”

Each naked newcomer reaches up towards the top of the furnace yanking down on a lever thus releasing a tsunami of water. The sudden, skin-scorching steam momentarily obliterates my ability to see the dozens of other naked bodies assembled in various states of quiet submission around me.

What I think of as dragon’s breath the Finns actually call “löyly.” Löyly originally means “spirit of life,” but is interpreted as “a cloud of sauna steam” released to purify the body and calm the mind.

The relationship between Finns and their saunas goes back more than one thousand years.

In addition to purifying the mind, “taking sauna” has been credited with driving out diseases. Decades ago women gave birth in saunas and there are tales of tumultuous lovers reconciling differences in an enveloping blast of löyly.

The ratio of saunas to Finns these days is one sauna for every 2.75 people.

There are more saunas than cars in Finland which makes sauna kind of hard to avoid. But then again, why would you want to?

Most public saunas disappeared with the introduction of shared saunas in apartment buildings, but Kotiharjun Sauna still operates daily. Built in 1928 in the heart of Helsinki’s Kallio district (an old workers neighborhood) it doesn’t appear to have changed much since then.

Today there’s a free Christmas Eve drink offered and between visits to the sauna I help myself to a Finnish beer. I sip on the beer as I glance through the photos in a Finnish magazine about (what else?) – saunas.

Eager for another round of Finnish cleansing my son and I return a few days later for a pre-flight sauna before my departure home.

The woman behind the check-in counter smiles, “weren’t you here a few days ago?” she asks, seemingly pleased to see us again. Contrary to popular stereotypes she is eager to talk to us about Finnish culture.

“Were you surprised at how talkative the men are in the sauna?” she asks Leif about his Christmas Eve experience.

Leif nods. It was a surprise given the reputation Finns have for being reserved.

“The sauna is the only place Finnish men talk,” she says laughing, “and it’s because they don’t have their wives and girlfriends talking to them, telling them what to say or think!”

Legend says that the most important decisions are made in saunas. According to Visit Finland, taking sauna together offers the opportunity for special bonding experiences which have no sexual overtones. I can see firsthand how saunas deliver total mental relaxation, clearing the mind of unnecessary clutter.

As I come downstairs ready to say my goodbyes Leif comes out of the men’s locker room.

My send-off from Finland couldn’t have been more moving…as Leif heads outside for a beer break I notice a stray birch leaf on his shoulder, and as he emerges into the frigid winter air the dragon retreats back into the hot layers of weathered wood.

Finns are well-known for their calm manner and stoic nature. So much so, it takes a lot to get Finnish people riled up. Losing to Sweden (again) at ice hockey, beating the world at ice hockey or beating Sweden at anything being notable exceptions. However, maybe this will all change with the advent of Black Friday, the American materialist frenzy created by the land of uber-capitalism to get people to buy crap they don’t need.

When US stores open early, to flog stuff at super cheap prices, the stampede is often so intense that fights break out, people break bones and some even die for a bargain. To see for yourself, check out this beautiful compilation of Black Friday moments.

So, how does this compare with Black Fridays in Finland? Yesterday a YouTuber Toni captured the chaos at 7am at a Power electronics store. So far the video has been viewed nearly 350 thousand times.

Happily, no Finns were hurt, however, according to Toni, some people felt extremely uncomfortable when others in the queue attempted small talk.

Finnish queuing habits have always been a source of bemusement to foreigners, even those from countries such as myself who have a fine tradition of queueing themselves. But it’s not just queuing that we non-Finns struggle to comprehend.

While light manipulation within photography is nothing new, Hannu’s captivating photos are directly metaphorical to the country Hannu is from, Finland, setting his work apart from the rest.

Finland is no stranger to extreme darkness in the relentless winter months — the act of chasing light becomes a necessary skill for mental survival in the arctic — and this art form is a fitting adaptation of that notion.

Hannu Huhtamo – Terminus

I asked Hannu a few questions about his work, here’s what he had to say:

1. Is photography your first love?

Actually no, originally I’m a guitar player who accidentally got involved in long exposure photography. But since that day I’ve been totally hooked on light painting so I guess you can call it a love affair that turned into a long {term} relationship. While music has always been my great source of energy, light painting is more like a meditative state that helps me to concentrate on a moment.

Hannu Huhtamo – Lost and Lethal

2. Where in Finland are some of your favorite spots to shoot?

Usually I don’t have to go far away from Helsinki. The city outskirts can offer quite a lot of interesting locations if there’s just enough darkness for longer exposure times. To avoid light pollution I usually head up to Luukki recreation area in Espoo. Kruunuvuori ghost town is definitely one of my all time favorite spots in Helsinki. All the abandoned and collapsed villas offer a surreal scene for photography. It’s a shame that nowadays the place is almost gone.

Hannu Huhtamo – Bright Ambassadors

3. The contrast in your pieces is stunning, are you drawn to darkness you think?

Maybe a little, the balance between two sides is important. I find it interesting and also challenging to decide what details you want to emphasize with light.

On days when he’s not killing endangered species in foreign countries for sport and making a mockery of the White House with his mere presence, Junior Jackass is posting absurdly dumb twitter posts about complex political issues he’s completely clueless about (he’s definitely his father’s son).

The internet’s response did not cease to amaze…

Celebrities and everyone in between decimated Donnie Jr. with the facts of reality about socialism. Not only did Donnie Jr. fail miserably to create a sensible analogy, he also did it with bad grammar.

Here’s more examples of what went down in case you missed it…

Original tweet

I’m going to take half of Chloe’s candy tonight & give it to some kid who sat at home. It’s never to early to teach her about socialism. pic.twitter.com/3ie9C0jv2G

What makes a chatty Brit prefer Finnish silence? In this special episode, renowned Finnish comedian André Wickström interviews Joel Willans, author of 101 Very Finnish Problems, at the Helsinki Book Fair. We learn about the backstory of Very Finnish Problems, how Joel ended up in Finland and much more. In a bonus segment, co-host and producer Thomas Nybergh reveals his future plans for the show.

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About the show

What’s so weird and wonderful about Finland? British born Joel Willans, creator of Very Finnish Problems, discusses, with a variety of fascinating guests, what he’s learnt after 15 years living in his much-loved, adopted country.

In the spirit of Halloween, a time when children gather irreversible mental damage and adults get drunk in full costume without being labeled dangerously unstable, we’ve put together a pictorial shortlist of California’s most infamous serial killers to date.

These human abominations will hopefully not increase your preexisting anxiety, but will remind your dark side that California has fostered some unprecedented freaks. Our collection is packed with links to documentaries on Youtube, which are guaranteed to keep you captured for hours.

1. “The Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez – 1985-86

The composite sketch of the alleged attacker and his first moment of incarcerated fame aka, mugshot

Richard Ramirez is the essence of evil. He terrorized the streets of Los Angeles in the mid-1980’s and his recognizable police sketch is the stuff nightmares are made of. He died on death row at San Quentin State Prison in 2013.

The arraignment of The Night Stalker, who was a self-proclaimed satanist

Ramirez taunted the court room with chilling antics to pass the time

Groupies are not just for band members. Here’s one of Ramirez’s fans turned wife while Ramirez sat on Death Row

2. Charles Manson & Family: The Tate-LaBianca murders – 1968-1969

The infamous “family” at Spahn Movie Ranch, Los Angeles, CA

Charles Manson and family plotted their heinous murders right in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, at the infamous Spahn Movie Ranch (among other places), and this disturbing bunch changed how the summer of 1969 will be viewed forever.

3.The Toolbox Killers, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris – 1979

Bittaker and Norris are responsible for the torture and murder of 5 teenage girls. It takes a special breed of psycho to commit these atrocities in a pair, yet there’s more couples who kill than you’d think.

Bittaker with fellow inmate and serial killer, William Bonin, aka The Freeway Killer

The most prolific of their time, these two pimps turned murderers had the LAPD scrambling for almost a year while they tossed bodies all over Los Angeles. Their rampageous run finally came to an end in 1978.

5. The Scorecard Killer, Randy Steven Kraft – 1972-1983

Randy Kraft left crabbed clues about his killing spree in a morbid “scorecard” for his own twisted pleasure. He has been linked to over 60 murders, mostly in California, and had southern Californians terrified for over a decade.

A sinister court smile

Kraft was pulled over in May 1983 after driving erratically, the officers found a dead Marine in his car

Dishonorable mention: Chowchilla kidnapping – 1976

A kidnapping and attempted murder of a school bus full of children in Chowchilla, California sets the disgust level particularly high on the abhorrent acts scale. By some surprising miracle everyone who was buried alive in this quarry escaped, and the perpetrators were captured.